Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#1

Post by gosenx » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 6:55 PM UTC

How much do you write code in your job? I have 4 1/2 years of experience and I have never had a time where programming was 60-80% of what I did and I’m very frustrated about this.

The whole point I started programming at 16 was to get a job were actual programming would be the main thing.

Tell me your experience and what kinds of programs you work in or industry if you find relevant.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#2

Post by garlandkey » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 7:17 PM UTC

I'm fortunate enough to work for a small company with a tight group of devs. We have daily stand-up and I'm pretty much left to research and code for the rest of the day. I'd say I code about 80% of the day.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#3

Post by drakonka » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 7:50 PM UTC

I'd say 85-90% of my work these days is programming. Both the actual coding and thinking through problems or architecture decisions, benchmarking, testing/comparing approaches, etc.

It really depends on the position and nature of the responsibilities though. I've had position where at least half my time was meetings, and others where there was just a lot of Slack chatter to work through during the day. Right now I'm on a limited-time contract with a very specific project to iterate on and finish up, so I don't get pulled into peripheral company decision meetings, 1-1s, etc as much. This appears nicely conducive to programming time.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#4

Post by hnthrowaway0328 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 7:51 PM UTC

Almost zero. I refuse to classify YAML as code.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#5

Post by catlover76 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:46 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#6

Post by mu53 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:54 PM UTC

You just have to find the right company and role. I have always been able to get out of meetings by "focusing on being an IC"

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#7

Post by MathMonkeyMan » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:57 PM UTC

hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #4

Almost zero. I refuse to classify YAML as code.

It's code, you're just not allowed to know what language it's written in.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#8

Post by mortylen » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

Depending on the type of project, sometimes 70% of the time is programming and 30% is consulting with the team. Other times I do 60% design and 40% programming. It's project by project. For me, most projects are greenfield development. Some of them don't even come to fruition after weeks of designing and are lost. The main thing is to do your job the best you can.

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#9

Post by malux85 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 10:19 PM UTC

I work at a hedge fund, and I spent 98% of my time writing code. I usually work on 2-3 experiments simultaneously, and every day or two take 2 hours off to work on "zany schemes" -- moonshot type ideas that occasionally are very lucrative, and therefore justified time-wise.

1 meeting a week, for 1 hour.

I work 3AM to 11AM, then about 12:30PM to 6PM on my side gig https://atomictessellator.com

Re: Ask HN: How much code do you write in your job?

#10

Post by comprev » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 10:47 PM UTC

About 80-90% at the moment due to project work where I'm (currently) the most experienced/knowledgable person on IaC in the company.

A few colleagues are learning very quickly so looking forward to taking a step back and focus on other things in 2024.